


Wait For Me

by Incoherentbabblings



Series: Tumblr Ask Game Prompts [39]
Category: Batman - All Media Types, DCU (Comics), Detective Comics (Comics)
Genre: Angst, Detective Comics (Rebirth), F/M, Flashbacks, Hurt No Comfort, Missing Scene, Originally Posted on Tumblr, Pining, Prison, References to Canon, Tumblr Ask Box Fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-21
Updated: 2020-09-21
Packaged: 2021-03-08 19:21:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,149
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27081838
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Incoherentbabblings/pseuds/Incoherentbabblings
Summary: Tim sits and waits during his imprisonment with Mr Oz. He's waited for Bruce to find him, but it has beenmonths. Tim needs to go home. He needs to go to Dick and Jason and Duke and Cassandra and Alfred and even Damian. He needs to go to Steph.He needs to go home.
Relationships: Batfamily Members & Tim Drake, Stephanie Brown/Tim Drake
Series: Tumblr Ask Game Prompts [39]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1970230
Comments: 1
Kudos: 12





	Wait For Me

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt:
> 
> _“Just get home as soon as possible, okay?!”_

_“You won’t be too long right?”_

_“Why? Nervous?” Tim had asked, as he moved around the apartment, packing a small bag. “I’m just picking up the rest of my stuff from the Titans. Won’t be more than three days.”_

_“Two days.”_

_Tim laughed, and Stephanie tugged on his t-shirt, not finding it funny._

_“Fine, fine,” he conceded. “Two days. C’mon Steph. It’s not like I’m going to the moon or something.”_

_She sneered, unimpressed, "I get worried when I can’t keep an eye on you.”_

_Tim kissed her hard, liking the way she instantly held him tight. “You don’t need to worry about me running off with Supergirl or something.”_

_She tugged him back when he tried returning to packing. “I’m not. That’s not it. You’re more of a magnet for trouble than I am. I turn away for three seconds and you’re tied to a bomb or pumped full of Scarecrow gas or hanging by a thread off Wayne Tower.”_

_“Steph…”_

_It was her turn to kiss him. She did it for long enough that Tim had shut his eyes and smiled dreamily._

_She placed a hand directly over his heart and begged,_ _"Just get home as soon as possible, okay?!”_

_He stared at her, admiring those big eyes and golden hair, felt her warm hand penetrating his suit and chest, and smiled._

_“Promise.”_

* * *

Promises, promises, promises.

Tim had promised Mr Grim Reaper that his friends would come for him.

According to the clock built into his computer in his suit – three months had passed. Doubt was starting to set in.

Maybe they never would find him. Last Tim remembered, he was being blown up by four dozen bullets and bombs. Maybe they thought he was dead.

Bruce wouldn’t. Tim had proved with Bruce himself that having a dead body didn’t count for anything, and Bruce wouldn’t have even _that_ to go off. Greatest Detective… he wouldn’t believe it.

But it had been three months.

He didn’t have much in the way of company, so Tim suspected he was going more than slightly mad. _Splendid isolation my ass._

Really the only thing he had was the videos and pictures stored on his computer. He had been shy – initially – about looking at them. He hated the idea of Oz watching him watching them, but he had never visited after Tim’s arrival, and so eventually Tim felt safe enough to put on the videos and images – little projections - up for him to see.

Just so he could hear another person’s voice, just so he could see another person’s face.

That was all.

He only had pictures of his parents, and when he looked at the photos he half wished he were dead with them. So, he very quickly stopped looking at those images.

Dick and Bruce were prominent. What he’d remembered as rare outings with Bruce out of costume were in fact more common then he realised, though he had little video footage of Bruce being genuinely himself and not playing up a schtick for the camera. There was the training footage Dick would send, as well as clips of him showing off for jumping and acrobatic routines, but again, largely photos.

The videos were dominated by Steph.

_“The plan doesn’t exist without you.”_

True.

_“…And I’m pretty good on my own. But you and me together?”_

_“We’re unstoppable.”_

Tim smiled at the certainty of her reply.

_“Whatever happens… I want you right there next to me.”_

“I want her with me,” he murmured, repeating his own words back at himself. The video at that point didn’t show much, Steph had put her phone down so they could kiss properly, but the sounds remained, as did the shot of the setting Gotham sun.

His eyes stung, and he rolled onto his back, pressing the heels of his palms down into his eyelids until he saw stars.

Stephanie wouldn’t know. Stephanie would think he was dead. Four months of bliss for what? What did he have to show for it? He was supposed to build a better world with her, _for_ her. He’d wanted to give her a better family than what she had been born into. She deserved it. He wanted to make Gotham worthy of her.

Stephanie probably believed he was dead. Three months. He’d been gone almost as long as they had been together. She would move on and find someone else. Maybe he’d made up the severity in his head of their relationship. He had the next twenty years mapped out as one possibility. What if it had just been teenagers being teenagers for her? What if she had already moved on? Someone who made her happier?

The idea of such a thing made Tim unspeakably angry, as if he had any right to say otherwise. It felt like his home was being taken from him.

His anger quickly settled. Four months and yet it had meant a lot to her. He knew this. He'd learned it during times when she would curl behind him in bed. When she thought he was getting his five hours of precious sleep, out poured the secrets and feelings she would never say aloud except during first light, when everything felt just a little bit more fragile. She wouldn’t have recovered so easily from his disappearance. The thought was both a comfort to himself and heart-breaking for her. He didn’t want her to be in pain. Ever.

Stephanie was his home. More than Gotham even. He needed to return to her. To Bruce. To Dick. To Babs and Duke and Cass and Jason and Damian and Alfred and his Titans and… Steph.

Sniffing, he pulled back, and flipped through more photos. He paused on such a silly one – he and Steph at a café. It was just a stupid selfie he had taken. Steph had been laughing about the different snapchat filters and insisted on taking one with him. It was so dumb with the cartoon ears, but he laughed all the same. She looked so happy.

His laughter quickly became him crying as he looked at it. At how much he wanted her to be that happy (happy _with him_ ).

Maybe Batman wasn’t coming. But he wasn't prepared to just lie down and rot. He wanted more than anything to be back home. If no-one was coming...

Maybe he’d have to make the first step.

Slowly he sat up and looked down at his armour. There was an equivalent of a hardware store inside his arm guards and chest plate. If he could just get to some form of computer and send a signal – it would be enough. Escaping would be great, distress signal would also be great.

Keeping up the photo of he and Steph, Tim set to work.

He would come home to her soon, one way or another. He begged her to wait just a little longer.

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted on Tumblr on the 21st of September 2020.


End file.
